Customer Reviews

Nice sketching and drawing pencil. Perfect balance, light as a feather. The barrel has a great finish and pleasant feel. Plastic internals. Brass clutch which has no play. Smooth plating job. The tip has a brass insert making it very slick. (easy to push the lead back in without breakage) Loud knock button click. Small lead increments. The clip is adequate, not too tight. The lead hardness gauge is great, easy to read and it stays in place.

Like all the Platinum brand mechanical pencils...excellant quality.

Nicely finished, minimal swirling in the sparkly blue plastic, and thicker around the middle than it seems in photos. It's fairly equivalent to the Pilot S3 in overall proportions, finish, and smoothness of operation, though more comfortable through the grip area. I appreciate the clean, slim spring clip, with no bulky tip to interfere with closing a hardbound sketchbook. It's a decent pencil, I'd say, but not quite as solid or precise as a Pentel P205 or a Zebra Drafix. The advance mechanism is a brass 3-jaw clutch, and the magazine tube is plastic. The lead grade indicator stays firmly in place, though the end cap seems ever so slightly too loose, much like the Pilot S3.

I have a bunch of these 0.3mm models.
PRO: I find the ergonomics to be perfect. The little flare at the end of the grip makes it perfect to write without slipping my fingers toward the tip and loosing my grip. Yet it is smooth so it doesn't abrade my fingers like knurled drafting pencils, which I just don't get along with. The cap is easy to slide back on after erasing, while avoiding unintended advance of the lead, which plagues many pencils. Although, the lead tube is a bit wiggly inside, so erasing is a bit clumsier than better pencils.
CON: This is a cheap build-quality pencil. The higher end Pts are much superior. I had problems with mine breaking the 0.3mm leads frequently. I fixed this by reaming out the lead clutch with a very fine drill bit, of about 0.5mm size. That took the roughness off the inner edges of the clutch, and the pencils that have been treated this way are much much more reliable now.

If the internal build quality of a Pentel P203/5/7 could be combined with the smoother, gently flared tip of this pencil, then the perfect pencil would exist, and I'd buy 100 of them. Also, such a beast in 0.4mm would make me buy 200.

It's quite light, but it's a great pencil.

it's kinda heavy (for me at least) but I like it :) very sleek and refined look.

This is a great pencil, especially for the price. I've gotten so many other $4-5 pencils and they are a pain to write with. This one feels solid, has a nice smooth clicking action, and looks really elegant (rather than industrial like most drafting pencils). A really nit-picky perk for me is that the cap for the eraser is a solid design too--the entire end (blue and silver sheath) comes off to reveal the eraser, so you can't accidentally twist the part that shows the lead number while you're getting at the eraser. I'm very glad I ordered two of these, and may get another!

see review in .03 silver body section

i personally do not like this pencil because of the weight. the construction however, is very solid and nice for a pretty inexpensive pencil. if you like it almost weightless, this is the pencil for you. i prefer mine with a bit of weight behind it.